The Little Scribbles
by HufflePuffPatronus
Summary: I left my phone number on a wall and you found it. So every now and again you text me about your day. I don't know how I still don't know who you are though.
1. A Good Friend is Hard to Come By

"Just face it Care-"

Caroline rolled eyes as she and Katherine stepped out onto the cobblestone to get to the other side of the street. As the rain began to clear up, she lifted the umbrella from over her head and shook it out. Adamantly attempting to ignore her best friend as they approached the entrance of the cafe but that proved to be a difficult feat. Katherine, clearly sensing that she wasn't listening, looped her arm under Caroline's; digging her flawless manicure into her sleeve as if to ensure she wouldn't escape and run away from her. Admittedly, Caroline was sorely tempted.

"-Spontaneity just isn't your strong suit," Katherine drawled, brushing the curls from her shoulder.

One treacherous foot of heels at a time she climbed up the steps to the cafe. Caroline followed behind her glaring holes in the back of her head.

"I'm plenty spontaneous, I'll have you know," She protested.

They took a seat at a table near the window. Caroline looked outside and pouted, noting that the rain had picked up once again.

"Name the last time you did something spontaneous," Katherine challenged her.

Before Caroline could answer Katherine interjected.

"Better yet; name one spontaneous thing you've done this week,"

Katherine smirked watching a Caroline opened and then closed her mouth, attempting to think of something. Simultaneously, she stuck her hand in the air and signaled for the waiter across the room cleaning a table. Caroline watched as Katherine's bracelet slid down her thin, dainty wrist and into the sleeve of her jacket

"I'll wait," she purred.

Katherine missed the filthy look Caroline shot her as the waiter arrived at their table; she then proceeded to launch into a ten-minute flirtation with their server (Jackson) only to then request a single cup of espresso.

"And, uh… for you?" Jackson asked, turning to Caroline, looking surprised to see her, as if he'd forgotten someone else was sitting there.

"A chai please," Caroline replied. "And can I get a- _red velvet cake_ to go with it please."

He nodded politely in her direction and flipped his notebook closed, flushing slightly when he caught Katherine's gaze once again. When Katherine looked up, Caroline met her eyes. Raising her eyebrows, she fixed her with a pointed stare.

"What, he was cute?" Katherine shrugged, sliding the jacket off her shoulders and depositing it on the back of her chair.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?" Katherine asked disinterestedly.

"What I ordered," Caroline said gesturing excitedly.

Katherine's nose wrinkled, indicating her confusion, so Caroline continued.

"I got a red velvet cake this time!"

A blank expression followed Caroline's statement so she tried again.

"I usually get the carrot."

Katherine snorted loudly.

"Call the Vatican, Caroline's well and truly jumped off the wagon this time." she deadpanned.

Caroline's retort was abruptly interrupted by the waiter's reappearance with their drinks and Caroline's cake. Once he left them alone, Katherine started snickering into her mug.

"What?" Caroline asked tiredly.

"You know what would be really bonkers? If you ate your _'dangerous red velvet cake'_ ,"- she emphasized her words by making quotation marks with her fingers- " _without_ laying a napkin over your lap this time,"

"You're hilarious Katherine…"

"Ooh! Or maybe you could eat it with your fork in your left hand instead of you're right-" she paused and pretended to clutch at her chest. "-Or would that be a little _too_ crazy?" she whispered.

Caroline's less than impressed expression only served to make Katherine's giggling fit even more severe. Caroline crossed her arms over her chest defensively.

"You know what? I'm just going to ignore you for the rest of the afternoon." she huffed irritably.

"Look, I'm just saying. You're vanilla Caroline, it's nothing to be ashamed of; just own it that's all," Katherine's said in a tone Caroline considered downright patronizing.

"What would it take to prove to you that you're totally wrong about me being 'vanilla'," she demanded.

Katherine gave a deep roll of her eyes.

"What is it with you and this deep, incessant need to prove people wrong? We need boring people in the world Care, if everyone was exciting and awesome like me the world would fall into anarchy."

Caroline's face turned positively aghast at that comment, so much so that Katherine relented. She picked up her bag and dug around for a bit before producing a single silver pen.

"Here,"

"What's that for?" Caroline frowned.

"For you to write your number with," Katherine answered, offering the pen to her with one of her trademark 'deal-with-the-devil' smiles.

"You want me to give my number to the cute waiter? Fine," Caroline shrugged already getting out of her seat.

"Hold on there cupcake." Katherine sing-songed. "You're not giving your digits to tall, dark and handsome over there."

"Then what-"

"-I want you to go into the bathroom in this place… and write your number in one of the stalls."

Katherine bit back a wry smile and waited for Caroline's response. Staring down at her best friend, her expression torn between a look of horror and determination.

"Of course you don't have to sweetie," Katherine purred condescendingly. "That is if you don't think you're hardcore enough,"

In an instant, Caroline had snatched the pen from Katherine's grasp and had stormed off in the direction of the bathroom.

Katherine watched her leave and picked up her espresso to take another sip. Honestly, she mused sometimes Caroline made messing with her too easy.

In the privacy of the stall she sat in, Caroline debated with herself why she was even considering doing this. To prove something to Katherine? She knew she wasn't boring. What did Katherine know anyway? Katherine couldn't even commit to a lease longer than 3 years. Caroline briefly considered lying and telling Katherine she'd written her number but not actually doing so. But Katherine usually had a sixth sense about these things (combined with the fact that she was a terrible liar) and Caroline wouldn't put past Katherine to go in and check and call Caroline out on her bluff.

So taking a deep breath, she uncapped the lid of the pen and slowly began to scrawl the digits of her phone number onto the left side of the wall. Just as she was standing up to leave (her heart thrumming nineteen to the dozen) Caroline had a second thought and swiveled round to add something just below the neatly written set of numbers.

 _Only Call in a State of a Crisis._

* * *

 **2 weeks later**

Caroline tossed and turned in her sheets. She was certain that to a fly on the wall she probably resembled a restless kitten in heat. The weather had taken a drastic turn from rivaling the Monsoon season in Thailand to a sweltering 100°F. Finally losing her patience, Caroline threw the entire sheet off her body. After not receiving much relief from that, she resolved to strip off her tank top and sleep shorts as well. Laying flat on the bed, Caroline hoped by not moving she'd help to decrease her level of discomfort. It did not. She felt just as sticky and gross as before, which was frustrating, to say the least. considering she'd just taken a shower less than ten minutes ago.

Lying there, it occurred to Caroline that she was basically naked and lying in a bed alone for the umpteenth time in so many weeks. Idly, she wondered how her life had gotten to be so uneventful. Granted she had a good job and a decent, rent-controlled apartment - which is a lot more than most people could ask for- but Caroline couldn't help but look back and reflect on Katherine's playful/slightly mean-spirited jabbing from the other day.

Was she indeed irrevocably vanilla?

Interrupting her pity party for one, her cell phone suddenly sprang to life on her bedside table. At first, Caroline didn't move but the incessant vibration against the hardwood quickly became jarring. Sighing heavily, she sat up and stretched over trying to exert as minimal energy as possible. On the third attempt at grasping for it, Caroline managed to grasp her phone between her fingers and quickly swiped to answer the call without checking the screen.

"Hello?" Came an uncertain voice down the line.

 **Reviews are love.**


	2. You Again?

"You're late"

Rebekah's blonde head appeared from behind her menu, a surly expression on her pretty face that was all too familiar.

"Good morning to you too,"

Klaus flashed his sister an easy smile, sliding gracefully into the chair adjacent to her.

"It's gone 11. That's practically lunch time Nik, you could have invited me somewhere far nicer to eat."

"Occasionally sister," - Klaus murmured, picking up a napkin and laying it across his lap - "It woudn't kill you to mingle amongst the unwashed masses."

Ignoring Rebekah's steely glare, he picked up a menu of his own.

"Don't count on me for a once of sympathy if anything in this hovel ends up giving you food poisoning." She hissed.

"Can I get you, folks, anything?" A man with a lot of facial hair in an apron approached their table, looking at them expectantly.

"A coffee please," Klaus replied without looking up. "Black, no sugar."

The waiter nodded dutifully and noted that down.

"And for you Miss?"

Giving the menu another unimpressed once over Rebekah let out an over long suffering (entirely over-dramatic yet not out of character) sigh.

"A glass of water, please. Mineral preferably."

The man flashed Rebekah a slightly incredulous look before schooling his expression and jotting that down on his notepad.

"I'll see what we have," he said uncertainly before shuffling away.

Klaus rolled his eyes as Rebekah sent another unimpressed look in his direction.

"Might I remind you," he said coolly. "It was you who forced me to be present for this lunch engagement,"

And had he deliberately chosen, somewhere less than up to par with Rebekah's impossible standards simply out of juvenile retaliation? Yes. But he was only human after all.

"I am your sister Niklaus."

Klaus winced at the use of his full name and made a point of suddenly looking extremely interested in the screen of his Blackberry.

"-Your _favorite_ sister at that." Rebekah continued. "I shouldn't have to borderline blackmail into spending time with me,"

Sighing impatiently, Klaus looked up and gave his sister an exasperated look.

"Don't play the victim card with me, Rebekah," he warned. "We both know you wouldn't have brought me unless you had some sort of hidden ulterior motive for demanding an audience with me,"

Rebekah shifted uncomfortably at that and stared out into the traffic passing by the window.

"And what 'ulterior motive' would that be?"

Klaus reclined back in his chair and smirked knowingly at his sibling just as the waiter returned and placed his coffee and Rebekah's water down in front of them before leaving again hastily, obviously sensing the tension between them.

"Ah I don't know," he hummed, tapping his chin, pretending to look pensive. "Perhaps, Elijah conspired with you and now you're here to make yet another attempt to lead me down the straight and narrow?"

Rebekah scoffed and tossed her hair off of her shoulder.

" _Hardly_ ,"

"Alright then, perhaps then this has something to do with mother then?"

Rebekah then visibly tensed and picked her napkin to wipe off a nonexistent bit of dirt on the side of her glass.

Klaus tutted and tilted his head patronizingly.

"Poor sister, you are as predictable as you are gullible,"

"Sod off Nik," Rebekah snapped, thumping down her glass back on the table. "For the life of me, I'll never know while you feel the need to be such a bloody prick all the time,"

"Well it's true, isn't it? You've spoken with her." Klaus replied nonchalantly, while reaching for his mug.

"We had brunch on Saturday,"

"Brunch…" Klaus bit out scornfully as if the word alone had mortally offended him.

"I'm not saying she's changed Nik-"

"Here we go-"

"-But she's concerned about you." Rebekah finished, staring at him imploringly.

Klaus took one look at her and began laughing uncontrollably.

"And what exactly is funny?" Rebekah demanded.

"I'm sorry Rebekah-" Klaus attempted through, splutters. "-But the only thing our mother cares about is herself and her own well being- and the idea that you've convinced yourself any different,"

"It's not like that Nik,"

"Let me guess, she's 'worried'"- he made quotation marks in the air for emphasis - "about my lack of suitable mate and is still adamant about setting me up with the Marshall-Kenner's obnoxious offspring, so she can call it her good deed for the year and hopefully get some trophy grandchildren out of it while she's at it?"

"You really are jaded for someone of your age Nik, you know that?"

Rebekah grabbed her glass from the table and took a sip, wrinkling her nose at whatever it was she did or didn't taste that made her water so unsatisfactory.

" _Ah_ , right again." he replied smugly.

"You can hardly blame her. You haven't had so much as a date with anyone since the therapist. What was her name? Blonde, a little dull, but a sweet girl God bless her…"

" _Camille_ has nothing to do with what we're discussing," Klaus said defensively. "This is about your active participation in mother's mission to control my life,"

"Now who's being dramatic," Rebekah fired back, sharply raising a razor thin eyebrow at him.

"I've heard enough," Klaus growled, rising from his seat.

"And now you're running, typical I must say-"

" **Keep** your hair on sister, I wouldn't be so inhumane as to force you to pay for your own glass of tap water," Klaus answered sardonically. "I'm visiting the facilities,"

"Well hurry up about it, if sit in this place any longer, I'm certain I'll come out with a rash." Rebekah hissed, writhing uncomfortably.

"So a typical Tuesday afternoon for you then?" Klaus smiled, retreating before Rebekah could answer him.

 _Of course, there's only one loo in this bloody place_ he thought as he slipped through the door at the back of the cafe.

Klaus sighed loudly, positioning himself near the bowl and adjusting his clothing. He then attempted to calm himself down and began calculating whether he'd have enough time (and patience) to take Rebekah to a nice patisserie and sweet talk her into taking his side over their mother's.

Suddenly something above his head caught his eye. The wall in front of him had various scribbles and doodles scrawled all over it ranging from varying degrees of offensiveness and artistry but what caught his eye, was what was written in unusually neat handwriting - a stark contrast to everything else - and the number above it.

 _Only call in the state of a crisis_

Klaus laughed ironically to himself, considering that anything that had anything to do with Esther Mikaelson, was something he considered to be a crisis. Perfect timing.

So yes maybe in a moment of utter madness he pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket and took down the number on the wall.

And maybe just maybe, he took out a pen also and scribbled it out so that nobody else would come after him and do the same thing.

Hey, he was a possessive sort of man, even when it came down to the numbers of complete strangers written in bathroom stalls. It was the Aries in him.

 **Later that evening**

"Hello, yes?" Caroline demanded, answering her phone and irritably responding to the voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey Care is this still your number?" the voice mumbled uncertainly

"Matt?!" Caroline said incredulously, suddenly sitting bolt upright.

"Uh, yeah," he replied, sounding slightly embarrassed and just as bumbling and inept as usual.

Matt was one of Caroline's ex-boyfriends who she's had the misfortune of 'agreeing to stay friends' with. Which everyone knows, is just code for _'I don't hate you but seriously I hope we never see each other again'_ except Matt missed that memo apparently and figured that them being quote unquote friends justified him calling her at ass crack at night, for what Caroline was certain promised to be complete and utter nonsense.

"Seriously, it's like eleven at night Matt," Caroline complained, smoothing her hair out of her face and glancing at her alarm clock.

"Yeah, I know and I'm really sorry," Matt said hurriedly. "But you're the only one I thought I could ask who would be available and wouldn't laugh at me,"

"What Matt?" Caroline sighed exhaustedly.

"How normal is it for someone to just suddenly develop a rash on the side of their elbow?"

Caroline pressed the phone to her chest and tried desperately not to groan out loud. Despite the distance, she could still feel Matt's panicked voice through the receiver.

"Care? Caroline are you still there,"

She sighed. "Yeah, Matt I'm still here. It sounds like it's just a regular rash. Does it hurt?"

"No but it's itchy," Matt replied, his tone sounding as if he was on the phone with his doctor describing the size of a growing tumor.

"If it's really bothering you then go see a doctor," Caroline supplied, staring up the ceiling and cursing the day she let Matt's boy next door charm and goofy lopsided grin talk her into giving him her number in the middle of that pretzel store in the mall one afternoon.

"You're right. Thanks, Care you're a life saver," Matt gushed, breathing a sigh of relief as if Caroline had just given him some invaluable, non-obvious solution to his problem.

"Sorry again for calling, good night-"

"-Wait!" Caroline exclaimed suddenly.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, I just-" "Do you?-"

"Yeah?" Matt questioned in confusion.

"Do you think I'm boring Matt?"

"What?"

"Do you think I'm boring?" Caroline repeated.

After a moment's silence, Matt finally responded with "Is this a trick question?"

"No! Matt, I just want your honest opinion,"

"Really?"

" _Yes_ , really," Caroline said with an eye roll.

"Oh, well then, no. I wouldn't say you're boring." Matt answered.

"No?" she said hopefully.

"No wouldn't be fair,"

Caroline breathed a sigh of relief.

"So would you say I'm fun?" she questioned

"What's that now?" Matt asked a slight edge of panic returning in his voice.

" _Fun_ Matt"

"Uhh,"

"Matt?"

"Uh, sure... I mean yeah you're fun. We always had a lot of fun together. I mean sure, it was pretty controlled, planned out to the letter type of fun but it was still fun,"

"Wait. What? What does that mean?"

Matt chuckled.

"Well you know, with you, it was kind of always _'The fun will start at 10:15 sharp and not a moment sooner'_ " he joked, clearly unaware of how insensitive he was being.

"Yeah well, I'm kind of tired so good night Matt. _Thanks for that_ ," Caroline said, barely veiling her ire.

"No _thank you_ ," Matt replied cheerily, the sarcasm going completely over his head.

"Night,"

"Goodnight,"

And with that, Caroline ended the call and proceeded to toss her phone three feet across the room and scream senselessly into her pillow.


End file.
